Game Shop Hostility Towards Paizo?


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion

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Liberty's Edge

I am fortunate to have a very good flgs in my home town and I am not just saying that because the owner is in my gaming group. He has always had a good selection of 3pp's and was the one to push me over the edge to start Pathfinder. The store has a wide range of products as well.


I'm sorry, from my perspective, I'm a little upset as well. Despite my personal bias (which has no place in business decisions), I can't justify stocking Pathfinder in my shop. I went from 10 subscribers to Pathfinder pre-announcement to 0 afterwards. People are ready to move on.

Here's the way things look in my area (may be different where you live)

Most of the people who don't mind dropping cash on their hobby are pro 4e. They pre-ordered their books and are gobbling up anything 4e they can find. If I had a 4e compatible Pathfinder adventure in the works, I'd already have 35+copies pre-ordered, guaranteed. There's a serious lack of 4e adventures right now, especially good ones.

Most of the anti 4e people have that opinion for one reason: money. A lot of people play RPGs because they are cheap. They don't buy anything but a PHB, instead relying on the DM to have all of the splatbooks. These are the guys who make comments in my shop like "Oh you play 4e? Isn't it just a dumbed down version of WoW for little kids?". Of course, they are 100% pro-Paizo until you ask them if they want to pre-order. "I totally support them, but I won't drop $50 on a new book"

So I can recommend 4e to people which is brand new, has an expanding player base and great advertising support or I can stock Pathfinder which caters to the people who don't want to spend, has an ever shrinking pool of players and little to no advertising at all.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Pathfinder adventures and have been converting them for my 4e game, but it's pretty silly to stock them as a FLGS.


Wiglaf wrote:
I am having a hard time finding a good LGS in my area. Can anyone recommend a FLGS or good LGS in the East Bay area of California? Preferably within walking distance of the BART?

I don't know if you've found it yet, but there's also Games of Berkeley right across the street from the downtown Berkeley BART station. I used to work for their parent company in SF, so I can tell you that they have some old time gamers who show up from time to time. Also, I just found out that Gamescape in SF hosts a Wednesday night game night at a cafe close by. Check it out if you're interested.

Liberty's Edge

Thank you very much. I'll check it out within the next week or so.

Liberty's Edge

My FLGS was hesitant to stock Paizo products. They carried the Pathfinder APs and the modules, but not the map packs and item cards. So I asked them to stock more of them, and told the owner that a lot of the time I come in to browse and end up buying the cheaper stuff like the non-module Paizo products when there's no new cool books, as impulse buys. So they started carrying more of them. I've noticed over the last few months that everything is in constant stock, they've got stuff up at the front counter, and Piazo stuff seems to be selling very well for them.

I picked up the Harrow deck simply because it was cheap and from Paizo and there are the front counter. I was buying miniatures, it came to $35 something, I had a $50, and I was like "What they heck, I don't need my change." I thought it was really cool, but it was just an impulse buy. I never would have ordered it online.

Which reminds me: Paizo should find a better supplier for miniatures. Crocodile seems to have trouble keeping up with demand. It'd be nice to see Pathfinder Miniatures hanging next the Map Packs at my FLGS, rather than Reaper minis. (Not that I'm knocking Reaper. I love Reaper. Maybe Reaper could cast Pathfinder's miniatures?)


YOU FOOKING BASTIDS!

I WILL URINATE ON YOUR BONES!!!!

Silver Crusade

Angry Gamestore owner wrote:


I WILL URINATE ON YOUR BONES!!!!

Man, I've been in a couple of stores that smelled like that took place in them.


Mikaze wrote:
Angry Gamestore owner wrote:


I WILL URINATE ON YOUR BONES!!!!
Man, I've been in a couple of stores that smelled like that took place in them.

**Sniffs store**


Tanus wrote:

I'm sorry, from my perspective, I'm a little upset as well. Despite my personal bias (which has no place in business decisions), I can't justify stocking Pathfinder in my shop. I went from 10 subscribers to Pathfinder pre-announcement to 0 afterwards. People are ready to move on.

Here's the way things look in my area (may be different where you live)

Most of the people who don't mind dropping cash on their hobby are pro 4e. They pre-ordered their books and are gobbling up anything 4e they can find. If I had a 4e compatible Pathfinder adventure in the works, I'd already have 35+copies pre-ordered, guaranteed. There's a serious lack of 4e adventures right now, especially good ones.

Most of the anti 4e people have that opinion for one reason: money. A lot of people play RPGs because they are cheap. They don't buy anything but a PHB, instead relying on the DM to have all of the splatbooks. These are the guys who make comments in my shop like "Oh you play 4e? Isn't it just a dumbed down version of WoW for little kids?". Of course, they are 100% pro-Paizo until you ask them if they want to pre-order. "I totally support them, but I won't drop $50 on a new book"

So I can recommend 4e to people which is brand new, has an expanding player base and great advertising support or I can stock Pathfinder which caters to the people who don't want to spend, has an ever shrinking pool of players and little to no advertising at all.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Pathfinder adventures and have been converting them for my 4e game, but it's pretty silly to stock them as a FLGS.

Seems to me that not stocking Pathfinder and declaring it unprofitable is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Have you considered that you might be over-generalizing in portraying Pathfinder's audience as cheap? It seems to me these boards are rife with evidence to the contrary.

I can tell you that in the NYC area Pathfinder is doing robust sales--and it is also prominently stocked, shelved and displayed.

Scarab Sages

Gotham Gamemaster wrote:

Seems to me that not stocking Pathfinder and declaring it unprofitable is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Have you considered that you might be over-generalizing in portraying Pathfinder's audience as cheap? It seems to me these boards are rife with evidence to the contrary.

I can tell you that in the NYC area Pathfinder is doing robust sales--and it is also prominently stocked, shelved and displayed.

I know I'm far more willing to drop down cash for Paizo products at the moment. Their quality, both physical quality and creative quality, is far better than much that is out there.

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